How shitty are you as a leader when the jobs you’re bragging about creating aren’t even on the surface of the earth, but in coal mines?

Maybe it’s just that my people come from coal country, but I have visceral reaction every time I hear either Trump or Pence bragging, as they both did again this afternoon, about their successful efforts to put more poor Americans to work below the surface of the earth… I get why the message resonates with the administration’s supporters, as they, no doubt, see coal mining it as a big “fuck you” to the liberal elite who believe in things like global climate change, but I can tell you for a fact, that, given the choice, the people in these small West Virginia coal towns would much rather earn a living wage up here, on the sunny side of the earth’s surface, with the rest of us. I would have thought that was obvious, but I guess it’s not, as Pence received a lot of applause today, when he once again bragged about opening more mines, like he’d just done something incredibly wonderful for the people of Appalachia. Granted, the people in these towns need decent paying jobs, but having to go deep beneath the surface of the earth every day, especially at a time when Republicans are attempting to roll back mining regulations and end black lung protections, probably isn’t the answer. Or at least it shouldn’t be. We should set our sights higher as a nation. Again, I don’t think I should have to be telling you this, but we shouldn’t be clapping for an administration that’s sending us in increasing numbers down into mine shafts to risk our lives in darkness. No, our applause should be reserved for announcements about new wind farms and solar fields, or new training programs in fields that align with what we, the American people, envision for our future. We deserve at least that much.

Not surprisingly, Trump has also expressed contempt for coal miners. In a 1990 interview with “Playboy,” he said: I like the challenge and tell the story of the coal miner’s son. The coal miner gets black-lung disease, his son gets it, then his son. If I had been the son of a coal miner, I would have left the damn mines. But most people don’t have the imagination–or whatever–to leave their mine. They don’t have “it.”